Microbiotica, Provenance and Iomob Bag Funding

A healthtech company, a sustainability marketing technology provider, and a decentralised protocol for the creation of the Internet of Mobility reveal their pleasant developments.

The week has started off well in Cambridge and London with Microbiotica, Provenance and Iomob all getting some useful tech funding.

Healthtech company Microbiotica has completed a £50 million Series B financing round – the “largest microbiome-related financing in Europe to date”.

Provenance, a sustainability marketing technology provider, has raised $5 million (£4 million) as it seeks to help citizens with “products that match their values”.

True Global Ventures 4 Plus Fund has led the latest undisclosed investment round in Iomob, which is building a decentralised protocol for the creation of the Internet of Mobility, the “world’s first interoperable mobility marketplace network”.

Movement at Microbiotica 

Cambridge-based Microbiotica is a tech firm discovering and developing microbiome-based therapeutics and biomarkers.

Its platform comprises a microbiome Culture Collection and Reference Genome Database, bioinformatics and machine learning.

The international investment syndicate was co-led by Flerie Invest, a Swedish life science investor, and Tencent. New investors also included British Patient Capital, while existing investors Cambridge Innovation Capital, IP Group, and Seventure Partners all participated.

Mike Romanos, Co-Founder and CEO of Microbiotica, explains: “With this additional investment, we will be able to conduct clinical trials with our lead products in immuno-oncology and ulcerative colitis. We will also expand our portfolio of microbiome-based products which have the potential to benefit patients globally.”

The proceeds will be used for Microbiotica’s two lead oral Live Bacterial Therapeutics (LBTs), MB097 and MB310 to Phase 1b clinical studies.

According to Microbiotica, both MB097 and MB310 are precision medicines derived by clinical microbiome profiling using its platform which links consortia of bacteria with clinical trial outcome data. Both products have also been validated and mechanistically characterised pre-clinically through in vivo efficacy data and ex vivo human cell data.

Microbiotica, spun out of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, was founded in 2016. It has partnered with organisations, such as Cancer Research UK, Cambridge University Hospitals, University of Adelaide and Genentech.

Big Time for Provenance 

Provenance is headquartered in London and got some backing with a musical touch.

The funding round was led by Working Capital Innovation Fund and Nordic Eye with participation from the Brandtech Group and Digital Currency Group. Angels include Nicolas Cary (Blockchain.com), Jon Reynolds (SwiftKey) and Peter Gabriel ( musician and activist).

Jessi Baker, Founder and CEO, Provenance, says the company is “fighting greenwash with transparency tech, and helping brands unlock commercial value from their positive social and environmental impact”.

The firm’s Proof Point technology lets online shoppers make “positive purchases for people and planet”, by surfacing trustworthy, proof-backed sustainability claims at the point of sale. Along with the B2C angle, it’s out for B2B action as it aims to work with brands and retailers by increasing shopper engagement, conversion and trust.

Proof Points are digital sustainability claims that sit in e-commerce pages and enable shoppers to click through to view relevant evidence or independent verification.

It seems things are going well in these sustainability-themed times, and Provenance says it has tripled its customer base in the last 12 months and is now working with 150+ brands and retailers across the food & drink, beauty and fashion industries, including Cult Beauty, Douglas, GANNI, Napolina, Arla and Unilever. Provenance is live in 18 markets across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.

Provenance works with 81 verifiers and over 20 certification bodies – including B Corp, Soil Association, Leaping Bunny and GOTS – to enable brands to surface third-party verification online.

The firm will invest the funds to develop its software product. Following the appointment of Phil Verey as Managing Director in January, the company also plans to scale its team size to 50+ in 2022, investing in staff across product and engineering, sales, marketing and partnerships.

Iomob Rules

Iomob will use this investment to expand its engineering and commercial team, as it seeks to execute its mobility decentralisation and tokenisation plans during 2022.

Its platform is a ‘plug and play’ to an app or vehicle and integrates a range of mobility services, including micro-mobility, shared mobility, taxis, ride hailing and public transit. These services can be accessed via APIs, SDKs or a white label app for booking and payment of these services from apps.

The fintech firm was incorporated in 2018 by three co-founders based in Barcelona. Since its incorporation, Iomob has deployed trials with enterprise customers in New Zealand, Spain and Scandinavia and is now deploying commercially in the UK, US and Portugal.

Iomob says the financial support came from TGV and other co-investors including A100x, a blockchain fund from the US, and Creas Impacto. Additional funding came from Global Blockchain Ventures, NetX, Techstars and B4Motion; all of whom are investing in Web 3.0 and mobility.

Currently, the Iomob platform and ‘Journey Planner’ taps into 7,000 taxi fleets, micro-mobility in more than 270 cities and 480+ public transit feeds.

Antony Peyton
Antony Peyton
Antony Peyton is the Editor of eWeek UK. He has 18 years' journalism and writing experience. His career has taken him to China, Japan and the UK - covering tech, fintech and business. Follow on Twitter @TonyFintech.
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